Have you ever paid attention to your impulsive response to a beautiful sunset? For me, it's always to take a picture -- especially since the invention of the iPhone, which has given me the opportunity to take decent pictures at any time.

Even when I don't have my phone with me, I still have this itch to respond to the sunset somehow. I am concerned with the ability to share this experience with others and to take something away from the moment it's created -- something tangible that I can hold or show to others.

This itch must partly spring from our desire to share joy with those we love and the hope of reliving the moment in part later. Part of the itch might spring from artistic creativity trying to be utilized. However, I think there is a part of us that is unfulfilled by just the sight of the sunset. Something that compels us to take some sort of action.

I don't think that the picture I crave to take is the fulfilling end that I am seeking. Even when I am with friends who are also taking pictures of the sunset -- even though I have access to millions of better sunset pictures on Google -- even though I have already taken five photos, I am compelled to take another.

Then I can look at the photo, edit it, share it on all platforms of social media, and it will still not be enough. I want to absorb the sunset, I want to participate in the sunset, I want to unite with the sunset, and there is no action I can take that brings me into the completely fulfilling union I crave.

I think the sunset lets me taste something bigger than myself, that I can't hold onto or comprehend -- and I fall in love, and I struggle to respond to that love. I try to absorb the sunset, catch it, interact with it with whatever means I have -- which tends to be my smartphone's camera.

But the picture of the sunset is not the sunset, it's just a reflection of it. When I see the picture I miss the real sunset, in the same way that I miss something when I see the sunset.

I think the sunset is a glimpse into the transcendent beauty of God. I hold to the hope that, one day, I will experience that ultimate union that I chase, and that my pictures have not brought me.